1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to both new and useful improvements in contraceptive devices for human beings and other animals which serve also to prevent and cure venereal and other diseases.
2. State of the Art
It has been known for many years that a foreign object in the uterus will prevent conception. To date, many different types of intrauterine contraceptive devices, also known as IUDs, have been proposed, and several types are in widespread use, but none have been fully satisfactory.
Bleeding and pain account for eighty-five per cent of the complications or side effects of intrauterine contraceptive devices. Therefore, any device that would reduce or eliminate bleeding and pain would lead to fewer removals of intrauterine contraceptive devices for "cause," and would allow a greater percentage of patients to "continue to use" the IUDs and would probably also expand the usage of IUDs.
Lack of confidence in the IUDs, as a result of unnoticed spontaneous expulsion of the device with the resulting potential for unwanted pregnancy, or the improper positioning of the device resulting in a loss of the thread or threads in the uterus, continue to plague the presently available intrauterine contraceptive devices. When the tail of a conventional IUD cannot be seen at the cervical os, the physician is faced with a dilemma, since he must make a distinction between unnoticed expulsion, ascent of the tail into the uterine cavity and possible perforation of the uterus. With presently available IUDs, in order to determine their presence within the uterine cavity, the physician must either send the patient for an X-ray, with its attendant expense, radiation exposure, the possibility of the patient being pregnant, and additional loss of confidence in the IUD by the patient, or probe "blindly" in the uterus, with a sound, a long, thin metal instrument, and with nothing to guide the sound this can become a painful, difficult and even dangerous procedure.
Syphilis, gonorrhea, trichomonas vaginalis and moniliasis can be extremely harmful diseases, if not controlled, and are presently of epidemic proportions. No adequate technique for preventing, treating or curing these diseases has been demonstrated, although it is well-known that certain antibiotics and/or trichomonacides or moniliacides will kill the organisms that cause these diseases. Accordingly, it is extremely desirable to be able to kill any gonoccocus or syphilitic or other venereal disease-causing organisms immediately as they are transmitted in order to prevent either disease from developing in the host individual. It is particularly desirable to combine the contraceptive function of an IUD with a means for preventing and controlling venereal disease, and this goal is enhanced by the provision of means to prolong the release of anti-venereal disease medication without the necessity for removing the IUD.